Israel to Free Palestinians as Annexation Bill Shakes Talks

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Israel prepared to release 26
Palestinian prisoners in a peacemaking gesture even as the chief
Palestinian negotiator declared that U.S.-brokered talks,
halfway to a critical deadline, had foundered.

Under the terms that brought the sides back to the
negotiating table in July, Israel agreed to free 104 prisoners,
most of them convicted of attacks on Israelis, in four rounds.
Tonight’s release, which still faces a challenge in Israel’s
highest court, is to be the third during the nine months of
talks the sides agreed to pursue.

Goodwill generated by the releases was eclipsed by an
Israeli decision yesterday to push ahead proposed legislation to
annex West Bank portions of the Jordan Valley, territory the
Palestinians seek as part of a future state. Palestinian
negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the vote was a sign Israel was
negotiating in bad faith.

Israel’s chief negotiator, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni,
also criticized the decision. Israel “can try to ignore the
world and support delusional and extremist legislature,” Livni
said today at a Tel Aviv conference. “Yesterday we saw an
example of this in the form of the proposal to annex the Jordan
Valley.”